Stroke Archive

Articles

Carotid stenosis treatments compared

Both surgical and nonsurgical options can prevent stroke.

The same process that causes obstructions in the heart's arteries can block the carotid arteries in the neck, a disease known as carotid stenosis. If these interfere with blood flow, a stroke can occur.

Symptoms of pending stroke (see box) usually require treatment to reduce the risk. One option calls for opening the artery and removing the plaque—a surgical procedure known as endarterectomy. A less-invasive option, called carotid stenting, involves inserting a catheter into an artery in the groin, advancing it to the carotid artery, opening the blockage with a balloon, and leaving behind a wire cage (or stent) to hold the artery open.

New devices compensate for foot drop

Nerve stimulation can help many people walk normally again.

Stroke and other diseases can damage nerves that control motion, resulting in foot drop. People with this condition have difficulty controlling the affected foot when walking. Although a conventional below-the-knee leg brace can provide stability, it cannot help these people pick up their foot normally with each step. Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital offers two devices that can. Dr. Randie Black-Schaffer, medical director of the stroke program at Spaulding, says the devices are significantly helpful.

Protect your brain from stroke

Reducing your salt intake may help.

You've heard for years that too much salt can raise your blood pressure and is dangerous for the heart. A new study finds that salt may also be a threat to your brain. The study, published in the journal Stroke, finds that among older adults, a high-sodium diet can significantly raise the risk of stroke. "The findings are associations and don't prove causality," says Dr. Helen Delichatsios, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "But I don't think the concerns about excess salt intake are overrated."

Stroke and salt

A stroke occurs when an artery that supplies blood to the brain becomes blocked or bursts. Without blood, brain cells go without oxygen and begin to die.

Prediabetes is associated with stroke risk

People with higher-than-normal blood glucose levels but who do not have diabetes—a condition known as prediabetes—may be at a higher risk of stroke. A diagnosis of prediabetes should sound a warning to better manage weight, diet, and exercise, which may contribute to diabetes and stroke.

Heart attack accelerates plaque

Heart attack survivors are at high risk for another heart attack or stroke, but until recently, no one knew why. Now an international study led by Harvard physicians and published online in Nature has found that heart attack triggers an immune response that accelerates the development of atherosclerosis and inflammation in cholesterol-filled plaques embedded in artery walls. "It's an ancient ‘fight-or-flight' response to injury, but instead of healing the wound, it accelerates the underlying disease," says senior author Dr. Matthias Nahrendorf of the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School.

During a heart attack, sympathetic nervous system activation causes stem cells to be released from the bone marrow. Stem cells induce production of monocytes and other immune cells in the spleen. These cells accumulate at yet-unruptured plaques, aggravating existing inflammation and triggering the release of enzymes that may cause those plaques to rupture.

Unique stroke risks in women with atrial fibrillation

Women with atrial fibrillation, a common heart-rhythm problem, are at greater risk for a stroke than men, and may need to be treated more aggressively with medicine that protects against stroke by preventing the formation of blood clots.

Women are at higher risk for stroke than men.

For unknown reasons, women are at higher risk than men.

If you have coronary artery disease (CAD), you are at increased risk of having a heart attack. But many people don't know that the same process that causes obstructive fatty plaques to accumulate in the heart's arteries can occur in the brain's arteries, increasing the risk for a stroke, or "brain attack." Strokes occur in almost 800,000 people every year, affecting about 55,000 more women than men.

Bleeding risk with aspirin must be balanced against benefit

An aspirin a day has been shown to lower the risk of a first heart attack in men and a first stroke in women, but it also increases the risk of major bleeding in the digestive tract or brain.

Could a silent stroke erode your memory?

Without any warning, your mind could be at risk.

A stroke can be dramatic—and devastating. As part of the brain is starved of its blood supply, cells may die. If a large number of brain cells die, with them may go some of a person's ability to speak, move, and remember.

Triglycerides may predict stroke

This lipid plays a bigger part than you realize.

The strongest predictors of a woman's stroke risk may be the most over-looked lipids in your cholesterol profile, according to a new study published online Feb. 2, 2012, in the journal Stroke.

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